Alternative Money and Economics's topics - tribe.net

Naomi Klein Debunks Bush's offshore drilling plans

trancedan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:37:42 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlEt86dMFTE

Fox Business Channel has an “after-the-market-closes” show, called Happy Hour, which appears to exist in a surreal space of unreality: bar setting, complete with a bartender and business men with their brewskis in the background, host Rebecca Gomez looking like she’s ready to hook up and whose only research before interviewing Naomi Klein ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Klein ) appears to be skimming the reviews of The Shock Doctrine ( http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine ) on Amazon, and to top it off, guest host Eric Bolling admits to not only being an oil trader, but never looking at the book! That’s respect, I’ll tell you, for the collective intelligence of their viewers as well as Naomi.

Still, with all the obstacles FBC places in the way of having an intelligent discussion, Klein manages to get in some great points that leave the embarrassingly ill-informed Faux hosts with little to do but sputter inanities like “Naomi, do you like capitalism?”

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

New OPTIMAES

phil — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:04:11 GMT

OPTIMAES now has a new site : http://optimaes.ning.com/

And I"m working on a new codebase.

For those interested in trying to understand how economies work through computer simulation.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 2 replies

Timetable on the Coming Crash

FXtrader — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:34:41 GMT

Message from John L. Petersen on the Coming Crash
http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/07_Money/071120.John.Petersen.html

November 19, 2007

It appears that the world in general and the United States in particular are on the edge of a major disruption in the global financial system. Here’s the summary as we see it.

At a recent Board meeting of The Arlington Institute, Dr. David Martin, CEO of M*CAM and one of the members of the Board was asked for his assessment of the global financial situation in the coming months.

Here are my notes from his response:

I stand by my commentary in July of ’06.

The next shoe to fall is consumer credit
Currently as reports came in on the 3rd quarter, foreclosures were up 470% this quarter alone. They will be up over 500% this coming quarter (4th). A foreclosure in our terms is when the bank has officially declared an account insolvent and tries to regain the asset (if it exists). The person who is foreclosed upon can no longer secure any traditional consumer credit. This in turn goes straight to the banks as no one will be able to get the store issued charge cards.

A minority of people pay off their consumer debt every month. When one considers the combination of consumer credit card debt and the compounded debt of “home equity” financing, we estimate that less than 20% of people actually carry no consumer credit from one month to the next. Many of the ones who don’t pay off their carried consumer debt have at least one credit card at its limit and therefore lack credit capacity. Most have their paycheck directly covering bills and servicing the minimum balance due.

Therefore people who are foreclosed upon will not be able to obtain credit and since their paychecks will be maxed out, there will not be extra cash left over from the paycheck to service a new debt.

Next, everybody buys things at Christmas. As much as 40% of retail sales are done in the 4th quarter of the year – i.e. the retail miracle. The purchase decline in retail goods this fourth quarter will occur because many credit-only consumers will lack the credit capacity mentioned above. Frequently, people overcharge their limit and the banks (albeit a profit center for subprime credit users) levy a penalty by increasing interest rates and charging additional fees. In the 4th quarter of 2007, the amount of people overcharging their limits will be too many for the banks to handle. We do not have a system in place to deal with overcharge on that scale. A substantial number of this December’s purchases will go into an overdraft on credit limits.

CDO – Collateral Debt Obligation – Consumer Credit

Consumer credit pooled debt investment instruments (a form of CDO) are originated and rated based on underlying historical credit behavior and a complex series of predictive models for repayment dynamics. CDOs have “strips” which are a combination of similar profile tranches within a larger investment product. Based on the market’s appetite for risk, investment performance guarantees (or credit enhancements) are packaged with the credits. These credit guarantees are issued by insurance companies, reinsurance companies, and other specialty finance companies – many operating with extra-territorial jurisdiction rendering fiscal oversight more complicated.

These strips come in several categories:

* Investment grade
* Almost investment grade
* Junk and
* Why did we give them a credit card?

All of these grades are priced on historical default rates. The credit insurance companies (AIG, MBIA, Ambac, Financial Security Assurance, Channel Re, XL, Zurich Re and other reinsurers) have, from time to time, issued credit guarantees to the securities. Banks sell debt in the form of a Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO).

Minor shifts in default actuarial activity (+/- 25 basis points) from normative behavior is absorbed within pricing of these financial guaranty contracts. However fundamental shifts (hundreds or thousands of basis points in one quarter) are not built into the model and result in credit enhancement insolvency on a major scale. When the insurer cannot pay based on its own liquidity impairment, the bank is left with catastrophic (an insurance term for excessive loss outside of expected) exposure.

If in a single quarter we have an increased foreclosure rate of 400% (or 4000 basis points) the insurance contracts simply cannot handle that kind of drastic shift as evidenced by the write offs in the third quarter. When we will follow the drastic third quarter with a loss of 500% in the fourth quarter, the trajectory becomes clear.

Neither the banking nor the insurance industry has a historical experience in dealing with this type of challenge and neither has the liquidity linked to these contracts to support system wide collapse.

Where was the announcement of this? There was no announcement.

However Hank Greenberg is resurfacing in AIG leadership even during an SEC investigation because without him, no one else can remember where the counterparty risks are. In order to save the insurance industry, shareholders have looked past alleged SEC violations as there is no one with Mr. Greenberg’s awareness of the market and counterparty agreements who can hope to navigate the coming challenges. In the 4th quarter, the US will have another record foreclosure announcement. Once you’re over 25% (25 basis point) foreclosure, all models are broken.

Under a consumer credit melt-down, Capital One and/or Wachovia are likely going to put a massive foreclosure liability to an insurance company and the insurance company will not have liquidity to cover the exposure.

This is the problem we got into when we issued credit card debt on top of secondary mortgages – (inflated the value of the home) and gave out credit based on faux equity that no one really had.

The reason why this problem is the second shoe to fall (subprime mortgage collapse was the first shoe) is because consumer credit has a different foreclosure frequency than traditional mortgage credit.

December is when the maturity of the giant buyout of the economy moves.

By December, you’ll have a second round of charge offs based on consumer credit. The real big problem – when you foreclose on consumer credit, people stop buying things. When people stop buying things, we don’t have a tertiary way to pump liquidity into the market. People won’t have extra cash from their paychecks and won’t have capacity on their cards.

Try this case study:

Go to the mall and stand in front of counter at Victoria Secret. Watch what happens when someone wants to pay with cash. The clerk won’t know how to ring up cash. They will need a manager to come over to give change and unlock drawers. When you don’t have capacity on those cards, you don’t buy things. VISA credit cards actually denigrate using cash in their run-up-to-Christmas add campaign.

Next, go to any savings bank data set. If you were going to spend $1000 in cash this Christmas, can you do it? For the most part, the answer would be “no” because we have had a net negative spending for the last 5 years.

Therefore there will be depressed consumer spending this Christmas but what is spent, people will overcharge. This will take what used to be good investments in CDOs and will change the dynamic. If you used to be a person who paid their bills on time, you will now only pay half. If the credit companies are counting on the top two tranches to pay their card off in full and they don’t, they won’t have liquidity to cover the rest. The banks cannot afford the top tranch paying half.

The estimates are out. There will be at least $400B in the first round of charge offs in the CDO market.

We’re not going to be done with the subprime mortgage when the CDOs fall. Therefore we will have an insolvency problem with the banks that are mentioned above.

This is the kiss of death of a privately held Federal Reserve. For the Federal Reserve to function, its stakeholder banks (like JP Morgan Chase) must remain viable and liquid. When one of them, or any major bank in the U.S. (like Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York, Washington Mutual, etc.) is impaired or ceases to exist, the architecture of the Fed’s capacity to respond to systemic challenges is unsustainable.

If the banks have no money, they can’t pump liquidity into the market. Taking half of a trillion dollars out of market in a single distressed write down becomes problematic. The US banking system does not have the liquidity to take the hit.

The actual solvency of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is relatively indecipherable due to the fact that their treasury management processes (and the risks of their own investment strategies) are not uniformly disclosed with sufficient transparency. The FDIC was set up for isolated problems with a few bad banks but is NOT prepared to “insure” the system in an industry-wide crisis. The actual liquidity reserve of the “insurance” that Americans view as their safety net is 1/100th the actual exposure of outstanding deposits. The actual coverage ratio for the Bank Insurance Fund (BIF) fell below 1.25% in 2002, the same year that less stable credit practices were adopted by America’s leading banks.

The funny part is that the Federal Government will be on holiday when all of this happens. There will be no one to put freeze actions and moratoria on actions. The only way you stop the cataclysm is to put together civil actions on deposit withdrawals.

As I discussed previously, the Chinese currency wild-card may become relevant far sooner than expected. An effort by China to convert its $1.4 trillion U.S. Treasury holdings into euros is not viable for many reasons – not the least of which is the European Central Bank’s inability to absorb such an event. As China continues its rush away from supporting U.S. Treasuries and as Middle Eastern investors are buying them up in more diversified holdings, a new “currency exchange” is unfolding. Realizing that they cannot liquidate their holdings, it appears that the Chinese are currently using their U.S. Treasury holdings as collateral for euro denominated purchases and long term infrastructure transactions. In other words, they may be “liquidating” their holdings as collateral and, in so doing, effectively migrating to non-dollar value without ever having to officially dump their current Treasury holdings.

Therefore, collateralize the credit in dollars – especially if you’re long in dollars. The lender/financier won’t call the note because you have it structured in such a way to both allow it to perform and hold illiquid collateral that no one wants. This essentially inflates euros. Although you can’t sell dollars, the whole purpose of collateral is that it is a second source of payment – collateral is there to down rate the risk of the loan. Secondary becomes irrelevant.

When February comes, the Chinese are going to do something as they will have to decide what the exposure is going to be with the treasury. As I see it they have to just dump the treasury. They only keep it because they can use it – they have 43% direct/indirect of US treasuries so they’ll dump them on the market.

The US Congressional pressures to decouple the RMB will work, but not in the way we want. Our plan includes helping them hold on to the treasuries, it does not involve them not holding the dollar anymore. The US wanted the tether to be part of the float. This will cause disenfranchisement of the US electorate (during primary season). February is also when public (media) will realize we won’t pull out of this.

Side note: Mayor Bloomberg could enter the race at this point, being the savior candidate (at least economically), but has $1B dollars in non-liquid money so he may not be able to enter.

March is when we realize that the dollar doesn’t come back.

OPEC price with the whole fluctuation of oil futures presages the event. They are going to run the price of oil as high as they can get it on the dollar, while buying US treasuries from China with the money. When the dollar does collapse, they’ll flip denominations. The wild card is long about March when the OPEC cuts spot oil off the dollar to the euro. One can look at the current oil price at close to $100/barrel and fail to see that, as this premium price is currently turning around and investing in a weakening dollar, the effective price (less the dollar investment hedge) is probably closer to $50/barrel than the spot price reflects.

Currency problems will change the game – they are financially structuring themselves to take the hit.

When we can’t afford to buy oil commodities on a spot market – it compounds the problem however the consumer that Saudi Arabia ships to is liquid (China). In the US it is a big problem. There is still a market for oil; it just changes. When you come out of Straits of Hormuz, turn left.
__________________

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 4 replies

10 of the Most Important Economic Events of the Last 10 Years: Collapsing the Economy in the Buildup to World War III

chycho — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:58:02 GMT

http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1638

The following is an update of “7 of the Most Important Economic Events of the Last 7 Years: Collapsing the Economy in the Buildup to World War III.”

Since 1999, the following events have either caused or been the symptom of the present economic crises:

1. Year 1999: Introduction of the euro to world financial markets - In 1999 the euro was introduced as an accounting currency (travellers' cheques, electronic transfers, banking, etc.) and then launched as physical coins and banknotes on 1 January 2002. The euro replaced the former European Currency Unit (ECU) at a ratio of 1:1, however its value quickly began to drop, reaching a low of 0.8252 relative to the US dollar on 26 October 2000. This proved to be a solid support level for the next two years, and in 2002 the euro began its appreciation reaching a high of 1.577 as of 17 March 2008.

click to enlarge source

Aside from consolidating power for the new European Union, the euro added liquidity and flexibility to the financial markets which in time have made the euro a very attractive and safe investment as a major global reserve currency. Two of the main reasons why the euro was introduced are:
1. A new power had to be created to fill the vacuum left behind by the collapse of the Soviet Union. The challenge to US hegemony could not be done on a military level therefore it had to be done on an economic level. The euro was created to challenge the US dollar as the preferred reserve currency. Since its inception, it has gain market share while the US dollar has lost market share. According to third quarter reports for 2007, US reserve currency market share is 64.6% and the euro is at 25.8%. Less the 1998 levels of Swiss and French francs, and German marks, this means that the euro has gained 9.3% of the global reserve currency market in less then 9 years, and this trend is accelerating, even though the European Union seems to be quite concerned about the rapid rise of the euro.
2. It was predicated that the United States would not be able to survive the collapse of the Soviet Union since its existence was fatally connected with that of the former Russian Empire. As a result the euro was created to provide a safe haven for the transfer of wealth. As of the beginning of 2007, within five short years, euro notes in circulation have exceeded the value of circulating US dollar notes. Considering that the dollar has been devalued by approximately 50% since reaching its high relative to the euro in 2000 (euro has gained more than 90%), we can only assume that the transfer of wealth has been going smoothly and that this trend will continue, especially since US government policy has been that a weaker dollar is good for American exports . (More on the euro and the US dollar below).

2. Year 2000: Collapse of the Dot-com bubble - The dot-com bubble, which had its climax on 10 March 2000 with the NASDAQ peaking at 5132.52, was a period during which “stock markets in Western nations saw their value increase rapidly from growth in the new Internet sector and related fields.” Aside from being a stock market bubble, numerous other reasons caused the correction that occurred in the value of shares across the border in the technology sector. Three of these were:
1. During the peak of the NASDAQ bubble margin debt was at an all time high. Investors and speculators were borrowing against their holdings to be able to purchase additional stocks. When the correction occurred, the value of their securities dropped, which meant that they were required to deposit funds or securities into margin accounts to maintain margin requirements set by their brokers. This in turn created a chain reaction. To cover margin calls, stocks were sold, reducing their value since there were more sellers then buyers, which in turn reduced the value of securities in margin accounts, which in turn resulted in additional margin calls which caused more selling.

This was one of the main reasons for the rapid decline in stocks in the year 2000, and this is one of the main fears of what may be happening with the markets right now. In 2007, the amount of margin debt hit a record $285.6 billion in January on the New York Stock Exchange “raising concerns on Wall Street about what might happen if a major correction occurs.” These concerns raised in 2007 have proven to be valid. Bank writedowns from subprime mortgages have resulted in margin calls to mortgage lenders that may deplete Wall Street banks of $325 billion due to ‘systemic margin call’.
2. From 1999 to early 2000, the Federal Reserve had increased interest rates six times, increasing the Fed Funds Rate from 4.75% to 6.5%, an increase of over 35%. This meant the end of cheap money for investors, venture capitalists, and technology companies whose lifespan was measured by their burn rate. In essence, the Federal Reserve brought an end to Greenspan`s irrational exuberance, or more accurately stated, the end to expansion of wealth. A self-induced prophesy many have argued.

During the boom, companies were able to bypass banks and raise capital through private venture capitalists. This meant that banks, which in the past were able to acquire shares in companies seeking startup money, were no longer getting in at rock bottom prices. Many individuals during this period created wealth by investing in multiple high-tech companies. Even if 1 out of 10 proved to be a success, then those who had invested were easily made independently wealthy. This went against established banking and investment practices and forced the Federal Reserve, a centralized private bank that sets the monetary policy for the United States, to increase interest rates until an adjustment in the markets occurred.

The belief is that interest rates were increased rapidly to induce a crash, consolidating assets, and increasing the powers of the elite in our centralized governments.
3. Standard & Poor's composite price-earnings ratio (real prices divided by the 120-month average of trailing real earnings) was at 46 even after the March correction in 2000. Until the NASDAQ boom, “the highest it had ever been (the data go back to 1871) was 33, in September 1929 -- the month before the crash.” The dividend yield on the Standard & Poor's index stood at 1.1%, the lowest ever. “The previous low was 2.6% in January 1973, just before the 1973-74 crash.” Margin debt had also increased 87% in the previous year, hitting $265.2 billion. (Note: as stated above, margin debt in 2007 was higher than that of 2000). All of this was a very good indication that at some point a correction would have to come (which is also the fear of what might be happening right now in the markets).

click to enlarge source

The Dot-com bubble crash wiped out approximately $5 trillion in market value of technology companies from March 2000 to October 2002 in paper wealth on the NASDAQ alone. The peak was $6.7 trillion in March 2000 and the trough was $1.6 trillion in October 2002. “It was the largest stock market collapse in the history of industrial capitalism”, however, exit rates of dot com firms were “comparable with or perhaps lower than exit rates of entrants in other industries in their formative years. Five year survival rates of Dot Com firms approach 50%,” a testament to their strength and importance. However, the crash did slow the exponential dissemination of information that was taking place though the Internet.

“The bursting of the dot-com bubble marked the beginning of a relatively mild yet rather lengthy early 2000s recession in the developed world.”

3. Year 2000: Iraq dumps the US dollar and switches to the euro - The following article, “The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq”, which was written before the US invasion of Iraq, lays forth an argument that the war in Iraq was not just about oil but about the currency in which oil is traded. It is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand the basic concepts of American foreign policy, economics, and its military operations around the world. This article states that the principle reason why the United States invaded Iraq was because Saddam Hussein in the year 2000 went "ahead with its plans to stop using the U.S. dollar in its oil business" and start using the euro.

Iraq switching from the US Petro-dollar to the euro meant that countries would no longer be obligated to buy oil in US dollars, so they would no longer have to maintain their US dollar reserves.

Since reaching a double top in the year 2000/01, the US dollar has been devalued approximately 50% relative to the euro (the euro has gained more then 90% from its low).

click to enlarge source

Even though Iraq dumping the US currency is no longer an issue because the United States is now occupying Iraq, many countries continue to sell the dollar, converting their reserves to other currencies. Some of these countries include: Sweden, Cuba, U.A.E., China, Russia, India, Indonesia, North Korea, Venezuela, and many more. If the tipping point has been reached, it would explain the dollars dramatic devaluation.

4. Year 2005: Rewriting the U.S. Bankruptcy Law - After years of lobbying, the “dream bill for credit card and financial service companies finally came into effect in the United States. Three years ago the financial institutions that were preparing for the coming crash were able to lobby Congress to pass the ‘Bankruptcy Bill’. This law that took effect in 2005 created what is now widely referred to as Debt Slavery and is “the biggest rewrite of U.S. bankruptcy law in a quarter century”.

The Bill was conveniently introduced at a time when US household debt was at an all time high.

click to enlarge source

Those who were wise enough to realize what the implications of the Bill would be declared bankruptcy before it took effect. Those unfortunates to have been caught unaware are now just realizing that corporations, who’s debts are wiped clean when they declare bankruptcy, have more rights then they do. Unfortunately, since personal bankruptcies have been surging, many people are finding out about their slave status the hard way.

5. Year 2006: Discontinuance of M3 - “On March 23, 2006, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System” ceased publishing the M3 monetary aggregate. The M numbers (M1, M2, and M3) are “components of the United States money supply”, which “show the amount of dollars in circulation”.

click to enlarge source

“M1 is the most volatile, equivalent to cash on the loose. M2 is less volatile, equivalent to savings account deposits. M3 is least volatile, equivalent to Rich Folks Money which they park.” One of the most important things that the M numbers are used for is to measure inflation. Clearly, the data indicates that “there has been substantial money growth since 2000”.

If there is more money in circulation then it becomes devalued. The downside of devaluing a currency is that it can cause inflation and force the government to increase interest rates, but there are positive effects.

As the Federal Reserve states, “a key effect of devaluation is that it makes the domestic currency cheaper relative to other currencies. There are two implications of a devaluation. First, devaluation makes the country's exports relatively less expensive for foreigners. Second, the devaluation makes foreign products relatively more expensive for domestic consumers, thus discouraging imports. This may help to increase the country's exports and decrease imports, and may therefore help to reduce the current account deficit.”

However, not knowing how much money the Banks are printing means that there is no longer an accurate indication of how much currency is in circulation. This basically means that we are playing Monopoly with people who can take money out of the bank anytime they want, because they are the bank. This should be raising alarm bells across the United States the way it has done across the world, as the dumping of the US dollar by most countries indicates. After all, why would anyone want to hold on to a currency that has lost more than 67 percent in five-years relative to its peers?

With the discontinuance of M3 and the apparent flooding of US dollars into the economy by creating money "Out of Thin Air", the US currency has been devalued to the point where “central banks and finance ministries (of other countries) are setting up obstacles to keep the falling dollar from threatening company profits and economic growth.” The ultimate question is, how long are other countries going to be able to keep the American economy from collapsing in on itself, specially since there is "talk of worst recession since the 1930s."

6. Year 2006: Iran moves from US dollars to the euro - At the end of 2006 Iran announced that they would “use the euro instead of the US dollar in the country's budget for the next Iranian year”. This announcement is at least an order of magnitude more significant than Saddam Hussein saying that Iraq would start selling oil in euros.

If the United States was willing to invade Iraq to prevent oil from being traded in any other currency then the dollar, then it would be logical to assume that they will also confront Iran regarding their plans to permanently and absolutely phase out the US dollar. The United States now finds itself between a rock and a hard place, because they will either need to invade, bomb, or enforce sanctions against Iran along with any other country that decides to stop using US dollars in their oil exports, or they will have to watch the complete collapse of their economy and the devaluing of the Federal Reserve currency known as the US dollar.

click to enlarge source

On 17 February 2008, Iran accelerated its plans to eliminate the US dollar from its finances when the first phase of Iran's oil and petrochemical bourse in Kish Island was inaugurated, paving the way for “all major currencies of the world” to be used in future oil transactions. The implications of what this means to world financial markets can not be over emphasized. Further information regarding this unprecedented economic crisis for the United States at: “The Implications of the opening of Iran’s Oil Bourse: The Final Nail in the Coffin for the American Empire.”

Where this will lead is yet to be determined but we now know that the United States is willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives, both American and foreign, and is willing to execute the leaders of sovereign countries to prevent them from switching from US dollars to the euro.

7. Year 2006/07: Subprime Market Collapses - “Subprime lending , also called B-paper, near-prime, or second chance lending, is the practice of making loans to borrowers who do not qualify for the best market interest rates because of their deficient credit history. The term also refers to paper taken on property that cannot be sold on the primary market, including loans on certain types of investment properties and certain types of self-employed individuals. Subprime lending is risky for both lenders and borrowers due to the combination of high interest rates, poor credit history, and adverse financial situations usually associated with subprime applicants.”

In the US the competition between these lenders became so fierce that “when the rates were getting too low, they switched to competing by way of advance ratio versus selling price.”

“In other words, if lender ‘A’ was offering 90% financing, lender ‘B’ would go to 100% financing, then lender ‘C’ would advance 100% of selling price plus costs, then to 105%, etc. We have seen the U.S. equity lenders now go to 130% of selling price, giving back 10-15% to the purchasers to help buy furniture, large electronic products, groceries, while the remaining 15-20% was eaten up in fees.”

Why would a lender risk giving someone 130% of the value of a property, especially if the people are considered to be high risk? Fractional-reserve banking of course: a system that has been established to allow financial institutions to “loan their customers many times the sum of the credit reserves than they hold”. It’s a pyramid scheme in which everything continues to work until the bottom falls out, and the bottom has fallen out in the United States where “States have subprime exposure between 18% to 30%” and early payment defaults are rising. This problem with the subprime mortgage market is intensifying with the US and UK housing market crashes.

Just how bad is the housing bubble? The diagram below paints a clear picture of what is about to hit the United States and a few other Western economies.

click to enlarge source

The following animated documentary contains further information on our present monetary system, and is a great introduction to fractional reserve banking: Money As Debt (47:07)

With this kind of banking system where money is created from debt, is it any wonder that the International Monetary Fund is warning that “house prices in the UK are overpriced by as much as 40 per cent and the bubble might burst” in Britain as well as other European markets as it has in the United States.

8. Year 2007: Run on The Bank in the US and UK - “A bank run is a type of financial crisis. It is a panic which occurs when a large number of customers of a bank fear it is insolvent and withdraw their deposits,” and this is exactly what happened to Countrywide in the United States and to Northern Rock in Britain, the financial capital of the world, in August and September of 2007.

“The queues that formed outside Northern Rock, the country's fifth-biggest mortgage lender, represented the first bank run in Britain since 1866. The panic was prompted by the very announcement designed to prevent it. Only when the Bank of England said that it would stand by the stricken Northern Rock did depositors start to run for the exit. Attempts by Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the exchequer, to reassure savers served only to lengthen the queues of people outside branches demanding their money. The run did not stop until Mr Darling gave a taxpayer-backed guarantee on September 17th that, for the time being, all the existing deposits at Northern Rock were safe.” This was in essence the same scenario that played out with Countrywide.

These banking crises in the US and UK are not individual anomalies that just became realized. Banks in the rest of Europe are also facing a crisis and all indications are that this “Force 5 economic-hurricane” is gaining strength.

The following documentary is worth viewing to fully understand the causes and implications of what is taking place: ZEITGEIST, The Movie: Part 3 of 3 (47:05)

9. Year 2007: 52% Support U.S. Military Strike Against Iran - In a Zogby Poll released 29 October 2007, the “majority of likely voters – 52% – would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53% believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election.”

Why would an attack on Iran be considered an economic event? Because war is the perfect consuming machine and a racket. “It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” (Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC)

The US economy was on the verge of collapse before 911 and again before the invasion of Iraq, but it was saved thanks in large part to the wars. “What do the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economic recovery in the United States have in common? More than one might expect, to judge from the last couple of rounds of US growth figures (2004).”

click to enlarge source

How much did the Iraq war contribute to boasting the economy? “During the second quarter of 2003, when the war in Iraq was in full swing, some 60 per cent of the 3.3 per cent GDP growth rate was attributable to military spending.”

“The war has been a large part of the justification for the Bush administration to run ever-widening budget deficits, and those deficits, predicated largely on military spending, have in turn pumped money into the economy and provided the stimulus that low interest rates and tax cuts, on their own, could never achieve.”

This however has run its course and the American economy has taken a serious downturn. As it is the case with delaying the inevitable, the present economic crisis is much graver than it was pre-Iraq, hence a bigger intervention is required to rejuvenate the American economy with its cannibalistic corporate structure.

Thanks to these wars, US debt is at historic levels, $9 trillion and counting, and all indications are that it is going to go a lot higher.

click to enlarge source

So what is this ever-widening budget deficits mean? The above chart is a “projection of the US budget” for the near future. “These are the US government’s own projections—and we all know they have every incentive to accent the positive. If this is the best they can do at this point, then you know things are not just bad, they are calamitous.

“This glimpse at the future clearly shows that the debt of the US will, in the foreseeable future, go from being a troubling yet manageable fraction of the economy to being several times the size of economy. That can’t happen without serious repercussions.

“The US government will be spending money they don’t have, which means creating more of it out of thin air and diluting the value of all the dollars that came before. It doesn’t take a Harvard MBA to know that the kind of deficits projected above guarantee a persistently weak dollar, higher inflation and higher interest rates going forward.”

So how does a collapsing empire as large as the United States recover from such disastrous fiscal policy? If history is any indication, a World War is the only solution. “The Great Depression ended as nations increased their production of war materials at the start of World War II. This increased production provided jobs and put large amounts of money back into circulation.” Hence in large part, WWII helped to bring about the end of the great depression.

Unfortunately however it was not the general public that benefited from the war. “World War II spending often required a conversion of plants designed for civilian good production into military factories and back again over the 9 year period. Substantially higher federal tax rates that were paid by the majority of households imposed much stronger fiscal drags on the benefits of the spending. Finally, less of the military spending was earmarked for wages and use of locally produced inputs, which reduced the direct stimulus to the local economy.” In essence, World War II just helped to consolidate corporate assets for the privileged few.

This attack on Iran will be nothing short of World War III which happens to be the mantra of the neocons who, with their corporate connections, would have everything to gain while the human race would have everything to lose, specially considering that this global war to save the American Empire is about to begin with the use of Nuclear weapons.

Unwittingly, the American populace is beginning to support the Bush administration’s plans to attack Iran, but they fail to realize that the decision to start World War III is solely an economic one to prevent the banking institutions from collapsing.

10. Year 2008: US comptroller general and head of the Government Accountability Office resigns - David M. Walker, The Comptroller General of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office, in February announced that “he will resign in March to lead a new foundation focused on long-term public policy challenges … Walker, 56, has repeatedly warned that the government faces a long-term fiscal crisis as the baby-boom generation retires, driving up spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”

“As GAO chief, Walker has warned that the government is ignoring threats to the nation’s long-term fiscal security.” The latest audit of the federal debt have revealed that “deficit spending and promised benefits for federal entitlement programs have put every man, woman, and child in the United States on the hook for $175,000”. This is exclusive of the personal debt that each person may carry. In the following interview, Walker explains the seriousness of the situation.

Walker’s resignation six years prior to the end of his 15 year term is a few orders of magnitude greater than the Chief financial officer (CFO) of the largest corporation in the world resigning. The position is so crucial to the functionality of the corporate structure of the United States of America that its subject to Senate confirmation. “The selection process is somewhat unusual.

“A commission made up of congressional leaders presents the president with at least three candidates for the job. The commission is made up of: the Speaker of the Houses, president pro tempore of the Senate, the Senate majority and minority leaders, the House majority and minority leaders, and the chairmen and ranking minority members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Oversight and Government Reform committees.

“The president chooses one of the three candidates for the job. His nominee must be approved by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel and then confirmed by the Senate.” This, indeed, is one of the most difficult and important positions in the United States.

What has transpired with Walker jumping ship and in the first three months of 2008 is nothing short of the beginning of the greatest consolidation of wealth in the history of the United States. Walker’s resignation has removed the last obstacle for those controlling US fiscal policy to readily make available cheap money. The Federal Reserve has already lowered the Primary Discount Rate from 6.25% to 2.5% since August of 2007. What has followed is a blank check to bailout and buyout banks, defusing a global financial Chernobyl in the derivatives markets some have argued, while at the same time impoverishing American citizens.

Walker’s resignation has been an amazing event, a harbinger of what is to come, but has virtually received no coverage in Western Mainstream Media!

So what are the implications of all this?

In a recent lecture, Seymour Hersh, an American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, stated that he feared what would happen if American citizens began to believe the propaganda from the Bush administration now that the rhetoric to attack Iran has changed from preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons to stopping them from killing American troops in Iraq. He states that this change in tactics by the US administration seems to be working and Americans are starting to support an attack on Iran. As the Zogby Poll indicates, Hersh’s fears are becoming realized.

The US economy is showing signs that it is in a recession and heading for a hard landing, due in large part to the subprime crisis and the inevitable end to fractional reserve banking. Unfortunately economists believe that the short term solution to saving the banking theocracies from completely collapsing, with a crisis of this magnitude, is to wage war. However this strategy has the reverse effect, and completely collapses an economy if the war drags on by mushrooming the national debt and depleting the resources of the warring nations. This kind of economic lifeline has two major consequences: First it devastates the populace and the environment, and second it consolidates assets for the elite.

There is also one major setback to this proposal of a war with Iran: An attack on Iran would be nothing less then World War III. But then again maybe that is what the US economy needs to stay alive, a World War: The Perfect Consuming Machine. After all it was World War II that decisively ended the great depression, and since most economic indicators are worst now then they were then, it would be reasonable to assume that the United States will start World War III for nothing else then to continue the American lifestyle, maintain the banking plutocracy, and consolidate world assets into the corporate coffer.

If World War III, the minimum expected death toll for which is 200 million, is allowed to take place to save the banking institutions from collapse, then it is a true sign of corporate economic intelligence and control, however this well not resonate well with humanity, but then again, corporations are anything but human and war is everything but humane.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

gold is $1000 dollars an ounce

phil — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:15:54 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7294040.stm

anyone remember what it was when this tribe started?

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 3 replies

America’s Top Accountant Resigns: U.S. Comptroller General and head of the GAO warms of US bankruptcy

chycho — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:19:04 GMT

apologies about cross posting but i though this was huge news ... info at my blog

chycho

America’s Top Accountant Resigns: U.S. Comptroller General and head of the GAO warms of US bankruptcy
http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1580

David M. Walker, The Comptroller General of the United States and “head of the Government Accountability Office, announced Friday that he will resign in March to lead a new foundation focused on long-term public policy challenges… Walker, 56, has repeatedly warned that the government faces a long-term fiscal crisis as the baby-boom generation retires, driving up spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”…

“As GAO chief, Walker has warned that the government is ignoring threats to the nation’s long-term fiscal security.” The latest audit of the federal debt have revealed that “deficit spending and promised benefits for federal entitlement programs have put every man, woman, and child in the United States on the hook for $175,000”. This is exclusive of the personal debt that each person may carry.

This means that every newborn in the United States of America has $175,000 of debt that they are responsible for before they take their first breath. This also means that every person that takes his or her last breath in the United States dies with at least $175,000 of debt.

Since debt slavery came into effect by the passing of the Bankruptcy Bill, this basically means that everyone in the United States is essentially a slave to the banking institutions since interest continues to accumulate on this debt. Now that personal debts are no longer cleared upon declaring bankruptcy, almost every person in the United States will die a slave.

How did the United States economy become so devastated and the populace so indebted? The Federal Reserve and the Military-industrial complex have most of the answers. The American lifestyle has the rest.

The simplest remedy to the American financial crisis is to change the American lifestyle from “the person(s) who accumulate the most possessions ‘win’ the game” to the person(s) who accumulate the most amount of goodwill ‘win’ the game. The reason that this has to happen is because “the carrying capacity of the planet will not continue to support” the American lifestyle. It is unsustainable, both economically and environmentally.

The second remedy is to eliminate the Military-industrial complex. “USA is responsible for 48 per cent” of the world’s total military spending, consuming over 41% of “US tax payer’s money”, not including hidden costs. When a country spends almost half its income on warfare, then it is doomed to economic oblivion and every other public priority, from healthcare to education and community development to social programs must be cut.

click to enlarge
source

The most important cure for what ails the US economy is to dismantle The Federal Reserve: A private banking institution headed by private individuals who represent conglomerate and the financial elite who act as “fiscal agents for the U.S. Treasury”. They decide how much money is in circulation, they print it, sell it to the United States Federal Government who in turn distributes it to the American people. In return they get all the interest, paid for with American taxes.

If you think this is absurd then you are not alone. John F. Kennedy tried to "strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power" before he was assassinated, and more recently, presidential hopeful Ron Paul had a few choice words for Ben Bernanke, the current Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

How large is the economic crisis that has hit the United States? With the discontinuance of M3 and the apparent flooding of US dollars into the economy by creating money "Out of Thin Air", the US currency has been devalued to the point where “central banks and finance ministries (of other countries) are setting up obstacles to keep the falling dollar from threatening company profits and economic growth.” The ultimate question is, how long are other countries going to be able to keep the American economy from collapsing in on itself, specially since there is "talk of a worst recession since the 1930s."

2008 should be a very interesting year.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 6 replies

Looking for an Earth Woman Friendly community style living solution?

Temeluch — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:45:41 GMT

Looking for an Earth Friendly community style living solution?

There is a Meeting of the Kindred Spirits coming up March 29th! And
we do need to see some more Positive well integrated Female Energy in
this group who can work closely with others.

http://edenvillage.net/18.htm

We are still looking to organize a group of volunteers to
help out some good folks one day out of the week, with some
organic gardening and we still do need someone to take Minutes
at the next meeting.

It would be possible, I would think, if there is a single female or
two out there who is cool about living closer to the Earth then
I may be able to provide a place for you to live, for
maybe 6 months out of the year up where I live in Northern
California.

If you can simply come to our next meeting on March 29th. - T

http://edenvillage.net/18.htm

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

WANTED

mellowsardine — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:21:49 GMT

I am a consumer lawyer in Georgia and I need some research assistance as soon as possible:

I need a macro economist who will talk to me and help me locate the statistics/numbers that describe the effect on our overall economy of
(1) the collection industry
(2) the collection of legitimate debt, and
(3) the collection of "zombie" debt, that is, debt which is uncollectible for good legal reason, e.g., the debt did not exist in the first place, the debt was paid in full, the debt was compromised and settled, the debt was discharged in bankruptcy, the debt was extinguished in a year's support petition, the statute of limitations has expired

The consumer pundits all tell you that debt collectors "cannot" sue you on zombie debt. This advice is FALSE. The collection industry buys and sells zombie debt over and over and over again, duns on such debt over and over and over again, and, in fact, SUES on such debt, over and over and over again, in hopes of obtaining a default judgment, turning a legally indefensible allegation of debt in a real, collectible judgment which provides the legitimate basis for garnishments and levies against personal and real property. If you are sued YOU MUST REACT, GET A GOOD ATTORNEY AND COUNTER-SUE, not just for the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act violations, but for fraud on the court and you; and you must find an attorney willing to sue the lawyers representing the debt collector for abusive litigation in violating their ethical rules by bringing a claim they knew or should have know by reasonable inquiry was without merit. You MUST contact the bar authorities and bring their attention to the suit and the unreasonable investigation of the allegation they conducted prior to filing it.

Just a thought experiment tells you that the numbers associated with zombie debt are much larger than the numbers associated with legitimate, fresh, collectible debt. Churning zombie debt gives debt collectors an UNLIMITED supply of claims. I suspect, but I do not know how to prove, that the zombie debt phenomenon, which came to the attention of the media some five or six years ago and has just entered the legal lexicon two years ago, may play a significant role in the so-called "subprime meltdown" and, if it did/does, if it remains an unrecognized drag on consumer confidence, tax rebates or interest rate changes will not assist in changing the direction of our economy.

I need to find a macroeconomist who can point me to strong, defensible, authoritative numbers on the subject of zombie debt. Please send me an email here on tribe if you can help.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

Costa Rica Real Estate is just doing Great!!!

Esteban — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 01:54:31 GMT

Real Estate Corporations are for grab by anyone

groups.google.com/group/com...costa-rica
posted by:

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 3 replies

economy of abundance

thevagabond — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:49:27 GMT

I am trying to work out a "game" and I was wondering your perspective.
By game I mean a new complementary currency for the community I am a
part of in Seattle. In short my I hope to introduce a catalyst into
the morphogenetic field of my community to create a type of open
source economy of abundance.

If you have any resources or concepts, I would love to hear them. As
for below I am just going to ramble on about my theories of the games
operational system. Feel free to skip it.......
_________________________________________________________

I have a novel idea of how to input the new information, or physical
voting system we call currency, into the community. There would be a
type of festival with a bunch of local vendors. For instance I am an
herbalist and would sell my tinctures. People would by my product for
10 dollars. I would give them the potion, and 10 of the new currency.
I would not take the new currency until the next day.

A wide variety of services are being paid for, but also gifted in a
way. Then the next day the real trading will begin. Another important
key is this currency would be connected to a website so you can see
what services these currency can be exchanged for. Also above all else
this currency expires. The community would hold this type of economic
fest.

So I am sure there are a lot of logic gaps in this game. My main
question is about control. Would there need to be a type of community
panel to be a watchdog of the system or is there some type of open
source platform that can implemented? I am really reaching for
abstract and innovative concepts. Do you have any suggested reading or
resources?

Please feel free to tribe me with links and some abstract theories. I really believe an alternative curancy, no mater how flawed, is still a step in the right direction.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 2 replies

Housing overview

phil — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:03:56 GMT

This is worth reading. Very good, if scary, explanation about the current US meltdown.

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/martenson/2007/1217.html

Anyone on this tribe currently doing anything in response to this crisis? Care to share your tactics? Ideas?

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

alt.coin-collectors

phil — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:36:18 GMT

http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2007/12/worldnetdaily-e.html

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 1 reply

The first social networking site to actually give back to its users!

jn33 — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:56:49 GMT

A couple of facts...

1) Facebook makes over $8 million a MONTH from advertising alone.
2) Myspace makes almost $25 million.

WE, the users, don't get any of this, even though WE are the ones making the pages, writing the blogs and uploading the pictures!

There's a brand new social networking site called Yuwie, which actually pays it's members just to use it!

You think Facebook has everything you need - That's fine! I love facebook, and only use Yuwie to make money. Simply join Yuwie with this link,
http://r.yuwie.com/jn33
and then you can do the same!

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 1 reply

Video: Ditching the Dollar

FXtrader — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:39:08 GMT

Here's a very good video about the current dollar situation.

Click link to watch. Then wait through stupid 15 second ad.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=597238697&play=1

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 7 replies

The "US dollar dilution & hyperinflation" Tribe

Daniel — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:57:17 GMT

http://tribes.tribe.net/usdprotection

The "US dollar dilution & hyperinflation" Tribe

Learn how to protect your wealth in US dollars from the freefall in the value of the US dollar. This forum is for sharing information that is hard to find. Learn how to move out of US dollars and into foreign currencies, offshore accounts, multicurrency accounts, and precious metals.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

Exiting US dollars -- offshore accounts, multicurrency accounts, yen, francs, yuan, gold, etc.

Daniel — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:33:53 GMT

The US dollar is now in a free-fall. The M3 data shows inflation at 15% and a GDP of less than 1%. This inflation rate is increasing rapidly and is showing no signs of declining.

I am looking to get entirely out of US dollars. I would like to open an offshore account so that I can move everything into yen, Swiss francs, and yuan and trade my account like a regular brokerage account -- buying stocks, ETFs, CEFs, etc. on the US exchanges as well as foreign exchanges.

Any ideas?

I am also interested in working with an overseas broker that I can open an account with, who will allow me to trade a "multicurrency sandwich."

HSBC bank in Singapore allows Americans to open a multicurrency account that will let you move all your US dollars into up to 9 other currencies. The Hong Kong HSBC branch will let you move into Chinese yuan. You do not have to be present to open these accounts, although you will likely need help from the Buffalo NY branch of HSBC to communicate with these foreign branches properly.

I am willing to share more information such as this if others can answer my initial questions about offshore accounts and multicurrency sandwiches. Please post web links or post phone numbers/email address.

Thanks in advance!

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

Fourth Corner Exchange

OAK — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:20:26 GMT

I was wondering if my tribe in the Great North West knew about this
and or have any comments, complaints or concerns.
http://www.fourthcornerexchange.com/

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

Alexander — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:37:46 GMT

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

In 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba experienced an 'energy famine.' Transportation and agriculture virtually came to a stop due to lack of diesel fuel and fertilizer shortages. This film explores what changes were put in place. The makers of the film "The End Of Suburbia" went to Cuba to explore it as a test case for what the conditions after Peak Oil would look like. This is that story.

This documentary takes you through various aspects of life in Cuba - Economy, transportation, health-care, agriculture, education - and explores how they dealt with the dramatic reduction of fossil fuels to a mere fraction of their pre 1990 levels. It was nice to meet the people, see the sights, and hear the sounds. The overall feeling was that the Cubans had improved the quality of their life (after a difficult "Special Period"). Their health was better, greater sense of community, better food and healthier land. I was left with the question: Why should we wait until we run out of oil? Let's do it now. The part that I did not expect was how it challenged my understanding of the difference between a Communist country and Capitalism. Did you know that a greater percentage of Cubans own their own home than in America? More farmers now own their own land? Sort of turns the notion of what a "Free-Market" is on its head!

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4981871524314644822&q=peak+oil+cuba&total=18&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

Permaculture Credit Union

brando — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:02:12 GMT

Permaculture Credit Union: http://pcuonline.org/index.html

want to know why credit unions are so much better than banks?: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

want to know more about permaculture?: http://www.permaculture.org/nm/index.php/site/index/

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

Amero

neekos — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:31:16 GMT

So what are your opinions on this then?

http://www.halturnershow.com/AmeroCoinArrives.html

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 18 replies

Money as Debt -- highly informative video

sean1234 — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 06:00:02 GMT

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&hl=en

Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it all is being created. It is an entertaining way to get the message out. The Cowichan Citizens Coalition and its "Duncan Initiative" received high praise from those who previewed it. I recommend it as a painless but hard-hitting educational tool and encourage the widest distribution and use by all groups concerned with the present unsustainable monetary system in Canada and the United States

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 2 replies

JAMAICA: Life and Debt

brando — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 10:17:31 GMT

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5277094596195828118

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

Collectivist Successes

Mark108 — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 04:32:44 GMT

Brought to you by the brilliant govenment officials
who know what the people really need...

You got it the -- same people who collectivized barley farming in arid Tibet
by insisting that the locals who know the land and whay grows there grow
rice instead. What greater progress can we expect? Yes! They're forcing
momads to settle down and kill their heards, therby creating a new class
of poor needing support. They can now bring even more Chinese into
this land Socialist paradise and land of plenty. Read the Glorious details...

BEIJING - China is forcing nomadic Tibetan herders to settle in towns to clear land for development, leaving many unable to earn a living, a human rights group said in a report issued Sunday.

Herders have been forced to slaughter herds of yaks, sheep and goats and Communist officials have paid minimal compensation and failed to protect Tibetans' legal rights, Human Rights Watch said. It said tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands, of people have been affected.

Chinese authorities explained the changes as a response to overgrazing by Tibetan herds that was causing soil erosion, Human Rights Watch said.

The group appealed to the government to suspend the resettlements until a review can be put in place and to allow Tibetans to return to their land if they were forcibly moved or received no compensation.

"Many Tibetan herders have been required to slaughter most of their livestock and move into newly built housing colonies in or near towns, abandoning their traditional way of life," the report said.

Human Rights Watch said the resettlements in Tibet and in adjacent ethnic Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces are linked to the effort, launched in 1999, to develop China's poor, restive west and bind it to the bustling east.

China's foreign ministry and the local governments of Tibet and the provinces cited did not respond to requests by phone and fax for comment.

The resettlements began in 2000 and have taken place more intensively since 2003, Human Rights Watch said.

"Many Tibetan agricultural communities have had their land confiscated, with minimal compensation, or have been evicted to make way for mining, infrastructure projects or urban development," the report said.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 6 replies

How do you define: Worth

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 00:27:45 GMT

Aloha, Souldancer here . . .

I just self-published a book, "Pay Me What I'm Worth" that's received great reviews so far. The goal of this book is simple: rediscover your natural, ever-evolving balance between receiving and giving. How? Re-discover ALL of who you are - inside and out! (That's what happens if you dance with any one of the 33 highly unique exercises sprinkled in each chapter.)

Given my spiritual (shamanic) studies and teachings over the past two decades, I've come to know the more I allow myself to receive what is in the highest and greatest good for all of us, I more effortlessly GIVE - worry free!

Kindly consider joining a tribe I created to support the launch and use of this book:
http://tribes.tribe.net/payme

as well as sharing your thoughts on how you come to know the concept, "worth."

Should you feel so inspired, click on the "add to friends" button on my profile page! The more bright smiles - the merrier!

Namaste
Soul

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

The Money Men < interesting book

mark1000 — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 21:48:43 GMT

Just finished an interesting book on the history of central banking and government finance in the United States. It's a very readable book aimed at the lay person. It's probably the most balanced take I've read on the topic.

Most of what I read, say, the Federal Reserve ranges from the myopic to the hysterical, either for or against, so it was nice to have someone take a reasonable, balanced approach to the history, pros, and cons of banking and finance.

Anyway, worth a read if you want some general background on the Capitalism vs. Democracy conflict in America.

The Money Men: Capitalism, Democracy, and the Hundred Years War Over the American Dollar
by H. W. Brands

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

New Massachusetts Money

Mark108 — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:35:47 GMT

GREAT BARRINGTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - A walk down Main Street in this New England town calls to mind the pictures of Norman Rockwell, who lived nearby and chronicled small-town American life in the mid-20th Century.

So it is fitting that the artist's face adorns the 50 BerkShares note, one of five denominations in a currency adopted by towns in western Massachusetts to support locally owned businesses over national chains.

"I just love the feel of using a local currency," said Trice Atchison, 43, a teacher who used BerkShares to buy a snack at a cafe in Great Barrington, a town of about 7,400 people. "It keeps the profit within the community."

There are about 844,000 BerkShares in circulation, worth $759,600 at the fixed exchange rate of 1 BerkShare to 90 U.S. cents, according to program organizers. The paper scrip is available in denominations of one, five, 10, 20 and 50.

In their 10 months of circulation, they've become a regular feature of the local economy. Businesses that accept BerkShares treat them interchangeably with dollars: a $1 cup of coffee sells for 1 BerkShare, a 10 percent discount for people paying in BerkShares.

Named for the local Berkshire Hills, BerkShares are accepted in about 280 cafes, coffee shops, grocery stores and other businesses in Great Barrington and neighboring towns, including Stockbridge, the town where Rockwell lived for a quarter century.

"BerkShares are cash, and so people have transferred their cash habits to BerkShares," said Susan Witt, executive director of the E.F. Schumacher Society, a nonprofit group that set up the program. "They might have 50 in their pocket, but not 150. They're buying their lunch, their coffee, a small birthday present."

Great Barrington attracts weekend residents and tourists from the New York area who help to support its wealth of organic farms, yoga studios, cafes and businesses like Allow Yourself to Be, which offers services ranging from massage to "chakra balancing" and Infinite Quest, which sells "past life regression therapy."

LOCAL PRIDE

The BerkShares program is one of about a dozen such efforts in the nation. Local groups in California, Kansas, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin run similar ones. One of the oldest is Ithaca Hours, which went into circulation in 1991 in Ithaca, New York.

About $120,000 of that currency circulates in the rural town. Unlike BerkShares, Ithaca Hours cannot officially be freely converted to dollars, though some businesses buy them.

Stephen Burkle, president of the Ithaca Hours program, said the notes are a badge of local pride.

"At the beginning it was very hard to get small businesses to get on board with it," said Burkle, who also owns a music store in Ithaca. "When Ithaca Hours first started, there wasn't a Home Depot in town, there wasn't a Borders, there wasn't a Starbucks. Now that there are, it's a mechanism for small businesses to compete with national chains."

U.S. law prevents states from issuing their own currency but allows private groups to print paper scrip, though not coins, said Lewis Solomon, a professor of law at George Washington University, who studies local currencies.

"As long as you don't turn out quarters and you don't turn out something that looks like the U.S. dollar, it's legal," Solomon said.

FULL CIRCLE

The BerkShares experiment comes as the dollar is losing some of its status on international markets, with governments shifting some reserves into euros, the pound and other investments as the U.S. currency has slid in value.

But the dollar is still the currency that businesses in Great Barrington need to pay most of their bills.

"The promise of this program is for it to be a completed circle," said Matt Rubiner, owner of Rubiner's cheese shop and Rubi's cafe. Some local farmers who supply him accept BerkShares, but he pays most of his bills in dollars.

"The circle isn't quite completed yet in most cases, and someone has to take the hit," Rubiner said, referring to the 10 percent discount. "The person who takes the hit is the merchant, it's me."

Meanwhile, Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc., a western Massachusetts bank that exchanges BerkShares for dollars, is considering BerkShares-denominated checks and debit cards.

"Businesses aren't comfortable walking around with wads of BerkShares to pay for their supplies or their advertising," said Melissa Joyce, a branch officer with the bank, which has 25 branches, six of which exchange BerkShares. "I do hope that we're able to develop the checking account and debit card, because it will make it easier for everyone."

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

Wal mart and 80 million

bee_dragon — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:24:41 GMT

Wal-Mart plans to launch a payments card aimed at the estimated 80m US residents who do not have access to a bank account.

Called the Wal-Mart MoneyCard, the prepaid product would be launched with GE Money, the retailer's financial partner, nd branded a Visa card, Wal-Mart officials said. An official announcement of the pilot programme could come as soon as this month.

more...

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19057574/

------------------------------------------------------

80 million people. That is the army for change. But Wal Mart will capture them and enslave them into the army of people buying cheap Chinese goods putting more US companies overseas or out of business or out of business.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 71 replies

I need an employer - Let me know if you could help me out

darlene22 — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:00:51 GMT

I am a Filipino with top notch qualifications and I am looking for a job abroad.

USA preferably.

If you wish, I can send you my qualifications and I can work for you for 40 hours a week assisting you on everything. I will be your full time assistant with excellent skills in sales, business and marketing.... I can help with domestic stuff at the same time although not very much on this. I can travel with you and plan businesses with you. I will send my full profile to the respondents of this post.

Necessary demands:

Working US Visa
Working Contract (necessary here in my country for POEA)
Board and Lodging
Food
Access to a Car (I can drive for you)

My salary only ranges from $1900.00 - $3000.00 depending on the job description. So let me know if you would like to be my new boss and let's try to communicate.

My yahoo messanger account is matrixianne_22@yahoo.com
My mobile phone a Philippine line is:

+63-922-603-58-10

-------------------------------------
PROFILE
_____________________

Diadem L. Lacorte
darlene.lacorte@gmail.com
Cellular Phone: +63922-603-58-10
Landline: +632-906-25-47

OBJECTIVE

A professional career where I can learn and apply my knowledge,
abilities and skills; and continue to grow and be challenged.

SUMMARY

• Over 2 years of customer service and professional training experience
• Skilled in cultivating positive relationships with clients and
colleagues; particularly adept at communicating with clarity and diplomacy to individuals from diverse cultural and organizational backgrounds. Fluent in both English and Tagalog.
• Strong leadership skills; ability to prioritize, delegate tasks, and
make sound decisions quickly while maintaining solid focus.
• Known for enthusiasm, persistence, follow-through, and fostering
collaborative relationships to resolve concerns and ensure project
completion and success.
• Computer Literate. Knowledge of Microsoft Office Applications as well as other business application software such as QuickBooks and Access. Experienced in Business Report Writing.
• Well oriented in an office environment. Facility with all common
office tasks – can file, fax, work with databases, manage schedules, make business calls, etc.
• Garnered several academic awards for excellent command of the English language. Can charm through my voice and spoken word, and can weave intricate, compelling essays, short stories, and poetry. Also versed in visual and musical arts.

WORK EXPERIENCE

“I’d rather be the one who jumped, survived and lived to tell; than to be the one who just looked to wonder how it could’ve felt like to jump and have lived to only die without ever knowing.”
- Diadem L.-

October 2006 – March 2007 DALTA – Call Center, Las Piñas, Philippines
Founder and Stock Holder

A Call Center that was initially hired to set appointments for an advertising firm at Loudoun County, USA. I have once again multi-tasked serving as the Manager, HR officer, Trainer, Supervisor and Consultant. I recruited, trained and have guided agents for several small accounts for this Center. I have played a role on creating presentations to convince the investors to put money into this kind of business. I headed this small start-up business that now evolved into DALTA – Contact Solutions.

March 2006 – September 2006 Access Infinite Resource, Manila, Philippines
Founder

Access Infinite Resource is an international staffing agency whose mission is to provide top tier support services to small, medium and large businesses throughout the world. As the founder of AIRBPO, I have also played an instrumental role in many aspects of the company's evolution. I have recruited and trained staff members, architected the website, attracted investors, assisted in creating the company office, and developed many of our core business processes.

January 2005 – March 2006 East West Support International,
Manila, Philippines
President and Founder

East West Support International is an international staffing agency
whose mission is to provide top tier support services to small businesses throughout the world. As the founder of East West, I have played an instrumental role in many aspects of the company's evolution. I have recruited and trained staff members, architected the website, attracted investors, assisted in creating the company office, and developed many of our core business processes. I have written our business plan and have conducted our feasibility study.
I have stood as our every client’s primary agent and have familiarized well over 16 accounts in total in a span of a month. I also instantly stood as the initial Trainer, Manager and Supervisor of every new and incoming representative.

July 2004 – Dec.2004 Arrows Chem-Dry, Alameda, CA
Customer Service Representative promoted as an Accounts Manager
and Marketing Assistant

As a marketing assistant and receptionist, my responsibilities include
but are not limited to: following up with current customers to verify
that they are satisfied with the qualify of our work, confirming
appointments, calling our existing customer base to inform them of company promotions and discounts, serving as account manager for various internet marketing strategies, posting advertisements on select websites, handling customer complaints issues in a timely manner, and scheduling new job orders. Within the year 2004 to the early months of 2005, I also headed the transfer of Chem-Dry’s local call center from Alameda to the Philippines and have operated taking hundreds of calls everyday hiring and training around 5 agents every month.

2003-2004 Dynapharm International, Manila , Philippines
Professional Trainer and Business Consultant

As a professional trainer for Dynapharm International, I personally
trained and educated hundreds of new distributors about our company, our products and our business practices. After a few months I was promoted to the role of senior trainer. In this new role I was responsible for training many of the company's junior trainers. In addition, I delivered a number of strategic presentations whose purpose was to attract potential investors into our company.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

Warning signs

bee_dragon — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:58:44 GMT

One of the warning signs of a economic crash is when too many people start “playing” in the stock market. Last week my barber was telling me about his strategy and how much money he was making in the market. Of course he was buying on margin, borrowed money. I remember visiting a friend in Hong Kong many years ago. He said it was time for him to leave, I asked why. There was some trepidation about the hand-over to China but not a lot of fear yet. He said the elevator man was bragging about how much money he was making in the stock market and to my friend that was a sign things were going to crash. And it did.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 8 replies

Is Becoming Wealthy Inherently Evil?

lori — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:06:09 GMT

I wonder if it is possible in the current economic structure of the world to be ethical and wealthy. I've heard many people say "money is neutral" but I doubt that's true and I suspect there are many here who would agree with me.

This is a fascinating blog (many of his blogs are very thought-provoking) that actually makes me think it MIGHT be possible to be wealthy without being evil. What do you think?

I've only posted the beginning of the blog (it's fairly long). The last paragraph I've posted is particularly interesting to me. You can find the rest of the blog here:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/11/is-becoming-wealthy-inherently-evil/

Is it morally wrong to attempt to become wealthy?

It’s no surprise to me that the Million Dollar Experiment, while mostly getting a highly positive reception, has also uncovered some opposition from people who believe the pursuit of financial wealth is inherently greedy, selfish, immoral, or just plain evil.

How do you feel about the whole idea of having more money than you need? A lot more. Excess cash. Does that concept excite you or make you feel uncomfortable? Is is attractive or repulsive? A mixture of both perhaps? Do you feel you’d have to compromise your integrity in order to achieve this goal?

What about earning money very quickly? A fast turnover. Making a quick buck. Does that raise some level of indignation within you?

If a friend were to say to you, “You know what. I’m going to go ahead and become rich,” how would you react? Would you assume this person has become a “sell out” or is about to compromise their integrity? Would you ridicule them for even setting this goal? How would you feel after they achieved the goal? How would you feel if they failed and gave up?

Isn’t it interesting to witness the complex feelings that arise when we examine our beliefs about money? Notice that I haven’t even addressed the actual process of acquiring money in any of these situations, merely the notion of wealth itself.

What role does intention play in the pursuit of wealth? Is the very idea of intending to be wealthy inherently evil, corrupt, or somehow wrong? Or can one become wealthy and still have integrity?

The level of “good” or “evil” you associate to money comes from your own beliefs and intentions, not from any innate quality that money possesses. By itself money is neutral and powerless. Your own thoughts will serve to define the role of money in your life.

If money or wealth are somehow connected with evil, greed, or selfishness in your mind, imagine what effect that will have on your financial decisions. Sounds like a good way of preventing yourself from ever becoming wealthy, doesn’t it? Is that a choice you’ve made consciously? Do you feel it’s the right one?

It isn’t money or the pursuit of money that has any moral connection — you might as well be collecting rocks, beads, or sea shells. It’s the energy you bring to money that matters. Money will play the role in your life that you intend it to play, and that intention will largely arise from your pre-conditioned beliefs. If you’ve been conditioned to associate negative qualities to money (especially through your upbringing), then money will play a largely negative role in your life. If you associate positive beliefs to money, then it will play a positive role.

But most likely you have mixed associations to money because socially conditioned beliefs are inherently incongruent — it’s a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Your concept of money develops mixed associations to both good and evil. You want more money for yourself, but not too much more. You step towards greater wealth and then back away from it. You dance around money for fear it might be dangerous to acquire too much of it, but then when scarcity overwhelms you, you think of little else. Eventually you figure you’re better off thinking about money as little as possible.

Been there, done that. It’s all so much nonsense.

Your money will derive its energy from you, from who you are as a person. Greater and greater wealth will simply squeeze out more of who you already are. If what’s inside you is good and noble and of high integrity, that’s what will come out. But if what’s inside you is fearful and uncertain, then fear and uncertainty will come out.

If you feel good about yourself, your thoughts, and your behavior, then having more money will only enhance those positive feelings and help you spread them to others.

What are you doing to earn money right now? Is your work devoted to the highest good of all? Or have you put yourself in a situation where you’re earning money in such a way that’s neutral or negative? Do you make money by creating or by competing? Are you giving your best value to the world or trying to get a free ride on the value creation of others?

We all grow up with a mixed bag of socially conditioned beliefs about money, especially from the media. By the time we’re working adults, we become bogged down with the heavy baggage of these limiting beliefs, causing us to behave very strangely and incongruently. Think about it for a moment… how rational is your financial behavior right now? Would an outside observer describe your financial decisions as truly intelligent and congruent when taking a deep look into your income, expenses, assets, and liabilities? Do you earn and spend money intelligently?

The only way out of the quagmire of limiting beliefs is to step back, uncover such beliefs one by one, and then consciously decide whether or not they’ll continue to be true for you.

Is money the root of all evil? Is the love of money the root of all evil? Or will money simply take root in the soil of your own thoughts?

Does making money quickly imply greed and selfishness? Or is it just being efficient and intelligent?

Does making extra money mean that someone else loses (scarcity mentality)? Or can you make money while simultaneously increasing the wealth of others without hurting anyone (abundance mentality)?

Is it intelligent to make only enough money to survive and cover your basic needs? Or is that really just being lazy and uninspired?

Have wealthy people compromised their integrity? Or is it possible to genuinely pursue greater wealth in a manner that serves the highest good of all?

Is the best way to fight poverty to give more cash to people who possess a deep-seated scarcity mentality? Or is it better to challenge this mindset and plant the seeds of abundance in their thoughts?

In order to acquire greater wealth, is it necessary for you to take more than you give? Or can you become wealthy by giving much more value than you receive in return?

How many wealthy people do you know intimately as opposed to through sensationalized media stories? What is their motivation?

If you had absolute financial abundance, what would you do with it? If that money were to allow you to express more of who you already are right now, what would you express? A noble purpose? The need for security? Fear and uncertainty? Self-sacrifice? Abundance and increase?

If you become wealthy and then teach hundreds of other people to do the same, have you done them a disservice and corrupted them? Or have you given them a tremendous gift?

Did you ever conclude that becoming wealthy would be out of your grasp? Have you ever thought about changing that belief?

These are all questions to consider when deciding what role money will play in your life.

One of my favorite quotes about money comes from the late, great Earl Nightingale:

Nothing can take the place of money in the area in which money works.

So amazingly accurate when you take the time to think about it.

I’ve had to face down a lot of these incongruencies within myself. What role is money to play in my life? Should I earn just enough to get by? Should I aim for financial independence? Do I serve people best by being broke, by earning just enough to cover my expenses, by achieving financial independence, by getting rich quickly?

Eventually I decided that it would be a good thing for me to become wealthy. Given that my purpose is to grow and to help others grow, I cannot ignore the financial dimension of personal development. If I become financially wealthy, then through my purpose I’ll naturally strive to help others do the same.

Working on my wealth is really no different than working on my self-discipline, my health, my productivity, my relationships, etc.

Once I made this decision, the first thing I had to do was to purge all those limiting beliefs about money from my psyche. I found quite a bit of rubbish in there, and I just let it go and decided that I would find a way to be wealthy that would be congruent with the highest good of all. Then I took some time to adopt more empowering beliefs about wealth and money.

Can achieving greater wealth for myself serve the greater good? I definitely believe this is possible. After all, it was my pursuit of passive income streams that gave me the freedom to create this web site in the first place. Those streams of income allowed me to spend my time writing and posting hundreds of articles without charging for them. I was able to spend months working full-time on this new career before I earned a dime from it. I think it should be obvious to anyone that this site is designed to give away a lot of value without requiring you to pay for it. But I could just as easily have taken a scarcity approach, charging for every shred of info and blocking access to it for those who couldn’t afford it. As I see it, this is one of those areas in which money does work — my passive income gives me the freedom to focus on giving without worrying about receiving.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 88 replies

Eliminate taxes, use debt interest payments to support government

sean1234 — Wed, 23 May 2007 05:19:19 GMT

Could it work?

Could we re-federalize "the fed", ie, make it no longer a private for-profit corporation, and then use the mass of interest payments that flow in to support necessary services provided by government?

The problem of how to control inflation immediately comes to mind as a major obstacle.

What other problems might make the idea unworkable?

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 1 reply

the current money system and its influence on politics explained

janathemama — Mon, 21 May 2007 01:33:34 GMT

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&hl=en

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

Chase Bank

ctjester — Fri, 11 May 2007 19:53:36 GMT

The money lenders, the Pharisees (New Testament definition), how do we bring them down legally. They truely are a scourge to the world community. So, How do we bring them down legally?

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 1 reply

Your comments on this will be appreciated

bee_dragon — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:13:42 GMT

Money

Everybody (well almost everybody) wants more of it, there never seems to be enough money to go around and almost all governments spend more money it has. You spend an enormous amount of time working for, thinking about, spending and being frustrated about money but do you really know what it is, where it comes from, who controls it and how it is created? There was a point in time that I thought that I knew where money came from, I was misinformed. Misinformed by an education system that only tells part of the story and ignores many of the not so obvious and not so pleasant facts. Misinformed by a financial industry that has an agenda of profit, gluttonous profit.

Sometimes the misinformation is not intentional. The mass media will print or broadcast statements made by members of the Federal Reserve, Bankers and economic experts. These statements always steer scrutiny for the current economic situation away from the institutions they represent and toward the actions of other countries, foreign banks and even people like you and me. You may find it hard to believe today but in the history of banking there were periods of extreme opposition to banks.

There are several problems facing almost every country today, unemployment, inflation, and ecological destruction as well as a large and rapidly growing debt. Invariably the blame is cast on the politicians running the country, the workers in the country, maybe even the weather of the country but never on the currency systems of the country.

The Current Economic System

Sometimes we want to believe things that simply can't be supported by research or facts. One is that the current monetary system benefits the majority of the people and is environmentally responsible. War, environmental destruction, loss of bio-diversity, poverty are not isolated political or corporate problems. They are problems with one root cause that the financial system of the world is horribly out of whack.

The current financial system has diverged from its two main roles those being a standard of value and medium of exchange.

Today more money is traded as a commodity than it is used to move commodities and pay wages. Currency trading takes away control from people, corporations, governments (social good) and put it in the hands of a few traders whose interest is only in profits not stability. In fact instability generate more profits. The suffering that the instability causes generates profits. This will continue until an instability that is too large to control occurs.

Witness today the mantra of economic growth and free trade that are not leading us toward economic justice and environmental sustainability. Rather they are taking us in the direction of increasing economic injustice and environmental destruction.

When it cones to environmental concerns the debate always turns to jobs versus the environment. These arguments not only miss the point they are constructed to instill fear and sustain the status quo. The evidence is mounting that in a resource scarce world, neither is possible without the other.

The current economic system produces an irreconcilable conflict between the goal of creating economically just and environmentally sustainable societies and embracing sustained economic growth. The current policies are constructed to produce more millionaires and billionaires. They are not designed to achieving justice (social, economic or environmental) and sustainability.

Economic War

The economic war, and it is a war, for control of the worlds supply of money is being waged every day. It is a war for energy supplies and the currency used for exchange of the energy (petrodollars). Ruinous interest rates and onerous terms of trade are killing millions of people on a plundered planet. Hunger, sickness, homelessness, unemployment and criminality kill them. At the extreme some people receive millions a day in interest and children are sold into sexual slavery to pay off her parents debts.

Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control
whole continents; who controls money can control the world.
Henry A. Kissinger

Workers within countries are being forced into a war of wages and benefits with the current “free trade’ and Globalism movements. C. H. DOUGLAS predicted some of the current problems with trade and the protests against Globalism in 1924. His proposal of “Social Credit” does not receive a lot of course time in college economic courses if it is even brought up at all. When it is there is a certain amount of intellectual dishonesty in the discussion.

In all wars there are casualties, dead soldiers, homelessness, a damaged and polluted environment. You are involved in an economic war every month when you have to pay your home mortgage or your credit card bills. You have been drawn into an economic war with your neighbors and other people like you across the nation and across the globe and you probably didn’t even notice it.

Like all wars governments are involved. In the USA it is Congress that passes the laws and in the economic war this is where the battlefield is very heavily stacked against the individual consumer, citizen, voter, man or woman. In Congress the largest political contributions are credit cards companies and consumer financial service companies. Not big oil, not big pharmaceutical! A great big multibillion-dollar industry talking to Congress, whispering in their ear. Just like in a shooting war big money buys bigger and better guns. As in all wars, to the victor go the spoils, or in this case profits and not just good profits but extraordinary profits, unreasonable profits, unconscionable profits. This is a “feature” of government that is being copied all over the world from first world countries to third world countries. It is any wonder the third world countries are so heavily in debt?

Less than 1% of the population is now claiming ownership to almost 50% of the wealth and the trend is not in favor of the many but in favor of the few.

People control money (if they want to)

The Chinese parable of “The Monkey Master” is a story of what happens when a people wake up the their enslavement and take back control of their destiny. Money is a system designed by people, if it doesn’t serve us we can redesign it. Many people in the past have done exactly this. There are examples of alternative currencies functioning for the benefit of all the people. Where there has been too much success, Worgl for example, the central bank of the country had stepped in and outlawed the alternative currency plunging the community back into economic depression.

Alternative Currency, Alternative Economy

Changing the worlds economic system won’t be easy. There is an enormous amount of inertia to be overcome. There is also a huge body of myths about the current system of money. The money system is intentionally obfuscated to make it difficult for people to understand. Replacing the current currency system with an Alternative currency is not a popular idea especially with many of the governments in the world, the captains of industry and especially the financial industry.

History shows a better world is possible when committed people work hard enough for it. A small number of committed people ended slavery. Committed people helped workers win the right to organize and bargain collectively. The women’s suffrage movement won women the right to vote and regain control of their own bodies. Minorities won important civil rights.

Changing the world’s economy will be far more difficult than any of the proceeding changes in history. A change in the economy would shift control from a few powerful governments and a small group of people to majority of people. This type of change like overthrowing never comes easily. The current system is an economic dictatorship and history has shown that eventually all dictatorships fall under its own weight, greed and corruption. You can see some of this happening every day. By constructing and using an alternative currency now the transition from economic dictatorship to freedom will be possible.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 17 replies

Damanhur

Crystal — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:54:27 GMT

Here in Ashland we were fortunate to have representatives from the Federation of Damanhur come speak to us. They have a very successful currency which is now accepted outside of the village area. It was an inspiration to see a community of 1,000 living together with such joy. The website is: http://www.damanhur.info
Click to credito to find out more about it.

During the conference ‘MONEY MOVES–away from Greed and Scarcity’ held in the Ecovillage of Lebensgarten, near Hanover in Germany, July 2003, the economist Bernard Liaetar one of the creators of the Euro and best selling author of ‘The Mystery of Money’ and ‘The Future of Money’, said: ‘In the West the only reality I’m aware of where a complete complementary currency system is working, is the Federation of Damanhur’.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 0 replies

Resource Based Economy

Shera — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 17:36:06 GMT

Energy Accounting.

So here is a solution I would like to put forward. It is not so much about alternative money but about economics.

It is not my creation but I heartily endorse it.

What if every human being on the planet received a portion of the energy value of the total resources; natural and technological?

Imagine the incredible growth and sustainablity we could create!
The drop in waste created by profit imperitive and competition.
The drop in crime if there is no incentive to steal.
The drop in sickness and disease if true health care costs no more than the current disease and symptom care that is offered today.

What if every human being's needs are provided for from cradle to grave?
This has been answered more than once by a sentiment that goes:....

"if people dont have to work, they wont"
If that were true there would be no purpose for hobbies, for retired people to volunteer etc.

The point being that people are creative and all of us have the need to feel useful and to contribute. No, we may not want to dig ditches or clean toilets; we already have adequate technology for that anyway.

But if we are freed from the drudgery of a job we dislike, we do find satisfaction in pursuing those things which interest us. We can invest a lot more energy in something that feels like play rather than something that feels like work.

In our current system human potential is going to waste. Free them from having to earn a living for themselves and their families and everyone benefits.

The much misunderstood resource of human engenuity is our greatest.

The Venus Project web site has an excellent article on Resource Based Economy.
http://www.thevenusproject.com/resource_eco.htm

Buckminster Fuller in his book Critical Path mentioned that at least 75% of the jobs at the time of writing were not providing any life support. He mentions professions such as lawyers, insurance brokers and poloticians. But there are many more.

Life support being pretty self explanatory.

Technocracy for most of us is a bad word. Wikipedia defines it thus: a government run by the highly educated

However, nothing could be further from the truth. Technocracy is not a form of government at all but a scientific way of using technology to manage resources for the good of all. The Technical Alliance created during the Great Depression laid our practical plans for this as it related to North America.

http://www.technocracy.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=6&page=1

Again: Resource Based Economy as described on the Venus Project web page..
Rather than repeat information on these 2 web sites, I merely post them and let you make up your own mind.

Now more than every we have the technology to accomplish this. If this has already been mentioned here I apologize.

posted in Alternative Money and Economics - 6 replies